The Talk
by wintershine
Summary: Future fic. Kendall and Logan think it's time to have the dreaded "Talk" with their 16-year-old daughter. It was awkward enough going through it when they were teenagers… One-shot. Done by request.


"Bye, Dad, I'll be home late, don't wait up, love you!"

Kendall chuckled to himself, taking another sip of his morning coffee as his daughter rushed out of the house in a whirlwind of hair and soccer gear and school books. Logan shook his head, also amused, as he sat down across from his husband of nearly eighteen years.

"She's in a rush today," Logan commented, biting into his toast and being careful not to spill any crumbs or strawberry jam on the tie his daughter had given him for his birthday last week.

"She's always in a rush to get away from us," Kendall replied, trying and failing to keep the hint of sadness out of his voice.

"You know how teenagers are. It's a phase. She'll grow out of it. At least she said 'love you' today. That's an improvement."

"I don't know if it's a phase. She stays up texting or talking on the phone until all hours of the night, and she stays after soccer practice way later than necessary. Do you think maybe she has a boyfriend she's not telling us about?"

Logan shuddered. "God, I hope not. Teenage boys are the worst," he grinned. "We ought to know. How many times did we sneak out of the apartment when we were kids to go make out somewhere where your mom or James and Carlos wouldn't find us?"

"Too many to count," Kendall remembered fondly. "And that's what I'm afraid of! She's too young to start messing around with boys!"

"I know you don't want to hear this," Logan started, laughing at Kendall's sour face. "But she _is _a teenager—you know how crazy with hormones we were at that age. If she wants to start… experimenting… then all we can do is make sure she's well informed of all the potential consequences and being safe."

Kendall stood quickly and took his dishes to the sink, as if unable to bear hearing anymore of this. "Ugh! How can you be so calm about this? That's our baby girl doing who knows what—oh, I can't even have this conversation."

"I'm a doctor, Kendall." Logan rolled his eyes. "I'm just stating the facts here."

"Well, that doesn't do anything to make me feel better."

"Kendall." Logan stood and went to wrap his arms around his husband from behind. "Don't you remember our first time?"

The blonde man turned and aimed a grin down at Logan. "Yeah. It was pretty awesome, wasn't it?"

"Pfft, no!"

Kendall frowned. "What?"

"It was awkward and it hurt like hell, and we had to sneak off to some empty supply closet to get any privacy! We were kids, and we had no idea what we were doing."

"Well, gee, I never knew it was that unpleasant for you." Kendall attempted to break free from Logan's embrace, his feelings a little hurt to know after all these years how Logan really felt about their first time.

Logan reached out and grabbed Kendall by the wrist and tugged him back. He stood up on the tips of his toes and planted a light kiss on Kendall's lips, smirking playfully. "But we were in love. It was the perfect moment in time, and I have never had a single regret about it. Don't you think Hailey deserves the same? She deserves to feel safe and to feel like she can come to us if she ever needs anything."

Kendall sighed loudly. "You're right. I hate that."

"It's way past time we had the talk with her, Ken."

"I honestly don't know who's going to be more mortified by it—her or me."

"We'll get through it. I'll see you tonight for dinner."

* * *

Later that night, Logan was pep-talking Kendall through their upcoming talk with Hailey as they walked up the stairs. Her door was cracked open slightly and they could hear music playing from her computer as she sat on the floor, surrounded by textbooks and sheets of paper as she studied.

"God, she takes after you so much," Kendall whispered. "I'm surrounded by nerds."

"Please," Logan whispered back. "She knows more stats on this year's Minnesota Wild than you do. We don't even _live _in Minnesota. She takes after you, too. _I'm _surrounded by jocks."

"Dad? Is that you?" Hailey called from inside her room, hearing something outside her door.

Logan pushed the door open and led the way inside, Kendall following sheepishly behind. "Hey, sweetie. How's your homework coming?"

"Alright," Hailey replied, sweeping her blonde hair out of her face. She was still dressed in her soccer clothes, having gotten straight to work on her English project as soon as she got home from practice. "I'm almost done with this and then I want to go over my notes for Pre-calc before I shower and go to bed. You guys are coming to my game tomorrow, right?"

"Of course," Kendall said, ruffling her hair fondly. "Can't miss the opportunity to watch you cream Oakridge."

"Good, because Coach said I'm starting tomorrow. Tenth graders never get to start."

"We'll be cheering for you, for sure."

"Don't embarrass me, though."

"What, us?" Logan feigned offense. "How dare you think we'd ever do that?"

Hailey raised her eyebrows but she smiled at them both. "You didn't just come up here to ask about my homework, did you, Pop? You have your lecture face on."

"I don't have a lecture face!" Logan said, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Yeah, you kind of do, hon," Kendall laughed.

"Well, regardless, there is something your dad and I wanted to talk to you about," Logan replied, straightening up. "Now, look, it's nothing to be embarrassed about, but we have both noticed that you've been a little secretive lately, talking on the phone and whatnot…"

Hailey struggled not to roll her eyes. "I'm a teenage girl, Pop. Of course I talk on the phone."

"What he's trying to say," Kendall interjected, "is that if there's anything you want to tell us, you can. We want you to know that you can come to us with anything, even if it seems a little… awkward…"

"Wait, wait, wait," Hailey put a hand up, her cheeks blushing. "Are you guys trying to give me The Talk right now?"

"We just know that at your age… you're going to start having some questions that you might not feel comfortable asking us—" Logan said.

"Oh my god," Hailey moaned. "This is not happening."

Kendall cleared his throat and tried again. "Hey, we were teenage boys once, kiddo, we know how it is. If there's… you know, a boy you're seeing, or 'talking to' or whatever you call it these days, we want you to understand the consequences of anything you two might decide to, um, do—"

"Dad! Please stop. I don't have a boyfriend! There are no boys in the picture. Zero. None. At all. We really don't need to discuss this."

"I know it's awkward, believe me. When my mom sat me down for this, I thought I was going die right there on the spot," Kendall grinned. "And we won't drag this out longer than it needs to be, okay?"

"Thank god, are we done?"

"Not quite," Logan replied. "But almost. We just want to let you know that we trust you to make good choices for yourself. It can be hard if there are boys out there pressuring you into… doing things, but we're confident that we've raised you be the kind of person who can make those decisions on her own. And we want to make sure that if you _do _decide that you're ready to, ah, take the next step, that you're aware of both the physical and emotional consequences that come with it."

"Right. Okay. Like I said, there are no boys. So. Can we please be done now?"

Logan laughed nervously and bent forward to kiss Hailey on the forehead. "Yes, baby. One last thing, though."

"Ughhhh!"

"We are always here for you, no matter what, okay?" Kendall said, leaning to kiss her head too. "That's all we wanted to tell you."

"Thank you, Jesus," Hailey sighed.

"It wasn't _that _bad, was it?" Logan asked, grinning as he stood up.

"I guess not," Hailey said.

Kendall shook his head. "Speak for yourself. I'm gonna have nightmares of having the talk with my mom for the next week. Good night, Hales. Good luck on your assignment."

"Night." The two men exited Hailey's room and were halfway down the hall when they heard her call out. "Hey, Dad? Pop?"

Logan and Kendall poked their heads back into her room. "Yeah?"

"I love you guys."

Kendall felt Logan squeeze his shoulder. "We love you, too, Hailey."

* * *

After her soccer game, during which Hailey scored two goals, Kendall and Logan let their daughter go out with her team to celebrate their win, and met James and Carlos for dinner and drinks before they headed home. Carlos howled with laughter at their story of giving the dreaded Talk, and glanced at James amusedly.

"Guess it's a good thing we have a boy."

"You have no idea," Kendall replied, sipping his beer. "I was trying to be cool, but honestly I thought I was going to puke."

The foursome stayed out a little later than they'd planned, but it wasn't a work night, and Hailey had already texted them informing them that she was home and would probably be up when they returned.

When they arrived, the lights were on in the living room, and they could hear the TV playing an old movie.

"Hailey? We're h—oh, god." Kendall stopped short and covered his eyes, backing into Logan, who stumbled into the doorframe.

"Kendall? What's the—oh." Logan pursed his lips together upon finding Hailey on the couch, her hair a wreck and limbs tangled into the other body that accompanied her.

"Dad! Pop! We were just—um, we were—"

"I think it's pretty clear what's going on here," Logan said sarcastically. "But it's getting late, and I think it's time for your, um, friend to go home."

"Right." Hailey cringed and stood up, smoothing her shirt and trying to tame her hair. "Shit, I mean, crap! This wasn't supposed to happen to like this."

"We'll talk about it after you walk your friend out."

Hailey did as she was told, wringing her hands together when she returned to the living room to find her dads waiting for her.

"Okay, look, I'm really sorry about that, we lost track of time and—"

"Hailey." Logan stopped her. "I can't believe after what we talked about _yesterday, _you would just lie to us like that! We specifically—"

"Well—" Hailey interrupted. "I mean… technically, I didn't lie."

Logan glared at her sternly and she shrunk away from him. Then he sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "What's her name?"

"Natalie."

Kendall crossed his arms and spoke. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I wasn't ready!" Hailey exclaimed. "We were just friends, at first, and then, you know, it just… became more, and I didn't really know what it meant, because sometimes I'm confused about whether I really, you know, like girls, or just her, and I don't know! It was weird, okay? It's weird talking to you guys about this stuff!"

"Look, Hales," Logan said, calmer now. "I know—I _know_ it's weird, but I promise you that anything you're going through, you don't have to hide from us! Ever. Maybe you like girls, or maybe you'll figure out that you like both. Whatever it is, it's fine! We understand that you need some privacy to figure these things out for yourself, but please don't ever think that we'd be disappointed or angry with you. I know that you've been brought up a bit differently, and maybe that's the downside of having two dads instead of a mom—"

"It's not that, Pop." Hailey bit her lip. "I wouldn't change anything about our family for the whole world. It's not your fault, alright? I wanted you to meet her tonight, but then you guys stayed out later than I thought you would and we just… got carried away while we were waiting."

Kendall slung his arm around Hailey and pulled her close. "How long have you two been… together?"

"Two months. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it in case it was just, I don't know a phase or whatever, but… I really like her. And I'm sorry you found out like this. Are you mad?"

"We're not mad," Kendall assured her. "Surprised, though."

"I'm sorry," Hailey said again. "I really wanted you to meet her."

"Why don't you invite her over for dinner tomorrow night?" Logan said. "We'll all cook dinner and hang out."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks, Pop."

"Of course. Now, it _is _late. You should get to bed."

"Okay. Good night, Pop." Hailey wrapped her arms around Logan and squeezed him tightly, saying everything she needed to say in that one embrace. "Night, Dad. I love you." She hugged Kendall too and kissed him on the cheek before disappearing up the stairs to her room, leaving the couple behind in shocked silence.

"Well. I can't say I was expecting that," Logan said after awhile.

"Me neither," Kendall replied. "But, you know, she was right about something."

"What's that?"

"She didn't lie to us. There _are_ no boys in the picture."


End file.
